January 2010

Jan Drago, recently appointed to take over the King County Council seat for District 8 vacated by Dow Constantine's election as County Executive spoke to the West Seattle Herald about her plans for the job. She is ambitious and her plans speak to her personal priorities.
Topping the list is "Economic recovery. Period. It's job creation and getting the economy back running again. It's what brought me to Seattle in the 1980's during the recession. I opened an ice cream shop up on Broadway," Drago said, "I have to get a better understanding of the County's role in economic development because there are all these different organizations. What you don't want is duplication."

The Normandy Park City Council elected George Hadley to serve as Mayor for 2010 – 2011. Hadley has served as a member of the Normandy Park City Council since 2004.

Prior to being elected to the City Council, Hadley served on the Normandy Park Board of Adjustment. Hadley has served as Mayor Pro Tem since 2006.

In 1998, Hadley retired from The Boeing Company and has been an active community volunteer in Normandy Park and the surrounding region.

Hadley earned a S.B. Degree in Mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965 and also attended the University of Stuttgart (Germany) from 1973 – 1975.

Mayor Hadley and his wife, Nancy, have lived in Normandy Park for almost 30 years.

Clarke Brant elect Mayor Pro Tem

The City Council also elected Clarke Brant to serve as Mayor Pro Tem for 2010 – 2011. Brant was first elected to the City Council in 2006 and, in November 2009, re-elected for a second term. Mr. Brant is a Navy Veteran, a former Patrol Plane Commander, Aviation Safety Inspector-Air Carrier Operations-FAA, and is now retired from Delta Air Lines.

The Frito Lay Distribution Center in Federal Way will earn the City of Federal Way’s first annual Leadership in Recycling Award for its commitment to sustainability.

The award will be presented at 7 p.m. on Jan. 19 at a City Council Meeting at City Hall, 33325 8th Ave S.

The City developed the Leadership in Recycling Award to recognize local businesses that work to increase recycling, reduce the generation of waste and employ other sustainable practices.

Frito Lay Inc. is a global snack food supplier. The Federal Way location ships more than 50,000 cases of product each week and every case is returned for re-use.

The cases are re-used up to 10 times before being recycled. This removes more than 75,000 lbs of cardboard per week from the waste stream.

Frito Lay’s Federal Way location also employs the following green practices:

• Recycles all plastic bottles, aluminum cans and office paper.

• Composts paper towels, coffee filters and all food-contaminated paper.

• Uses motion-sensor-lights and state-of-the-art efficiency lighting to conserve energy.

• Uses rain sensors that reduce irrigation system use.

I'm downstairs at 7:45 to make tea and the sun is just ringing in over the horizon.

With the kettle on the fire I schlepped over to the front door to release the dogs of snore. They scampered out into 34 degree post-frosted air and with that instant slap in the face, for a moment, I thought I might not need the black tea.

The rain from the previous night has scoured the world clean as a fire engine and I can see all the way to Enumscratch from my dining room window.
 
When the teapot whistles, I pour my cup of Constant Comment and turn back to the view to see the first rays of Sol as he slices though the still low clouds behind the peaks of the distant Cascadian range.

They are so contrasted by the sharp, yellow light, it illuminates the trees around my house so that they are nearly artificial. It's beautiful.
 
A hundred years ago, I lived in a little log cabin on a busy street. Quite a contrast, that.

500 square feet of 1950's peeler logs strapped together by my landlord, an earnest old man with good carpentry skills.

What are School Board Members thinking?

Should the School District’s Technology Levy be rejected? I think so.

The District is proposing a new six year levy that “Will not increase taxes” but this is not the whole story. This levy is designed to provide every student in the school district with some kind of “Digital device” in the next 6 years, presumably to “Increase student achievement!” All of this “Discussion” was done without any opportunity for public comment!

One could make a significant case for the fact that the increases in “Digital devices” we have seen in the past six years have mostly stalled the efforts we have seen to “Increase student achievement.” I-pods, X-Boxes, My-Space, text messaging, Twitter, cell phones, Game-boys have all been a distraction in the home and sometimes in classrooms. Kids no longer seem to have time, or focus, to devote to “studying” and “learning.”

Photographer Kurt Howard captured these images during the girls' gymnastics meet at Todd Beamer High School January 13.
Click on the photo to see additional images from the meet.

The Ballard High School girls basketball team let Roosevelt pull away in the second half of the teams' Jan. 15 matchup.

The Beavers owned a 9-3 lead at the end of the first quarter and were tied at 16 with Roosevelt going into halftime.

But, Ballard sputtered while Roosevelt poured it on in the second half, with the Beavers eventually losing 48-36.

Senior Kayla Wenger led Ballard with 13 points. Junior Tai Tautolo had seven.

The loss puts the Beavers at 1-7 in the conference and 3-9 overall.

Ballard's next game is against Skyline at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 20 at Skyline High School.

Decatur battled back in a big way to beat South Puget Sound League South Division and crosstown rival Todd Beamer by a 43-31 score Tuesday, Jan. 12.

The Titans had taken as much as a 10-2 lead in the first quarter and led, 10-3, at the end of the quarter, but Decatur was far from done.

Winning was a relief to Gators head coach Kevin Rawie, whose team improved to 2-9 overall.

"We were the comeback kids," said Rawie of the win over the Titans. "We just cut down on turnovers and started looking for each other. We played as a team and we ran when we had the chance to run and ran the offense."

Shyla Akins of Todd Beamer started off the scoring only 53 seconds into the game with a three-point basket. The Titans then gradually built up the early lead to 10-2 by the time only 2:58 remained in the first quarter.

Decatur got the last word in with 38.6 left in the first quarter, when Kayla Lipston swished in one of two free throws to make it 10-3.

But the Gators came out tough in he second quarter, scoring six of the first seven points. Abby McFaul capped the rally off by icing a three-point play to make it 11-8 at the 4:30 mark.

Spencer Hicks scored a triple double to lead the Thomas Jefferson boys basketball team to a convincing 78-52 victory over Auburn Thursday.

The 6-foot, 7-inch senior center scored 13 points while hauling down 10 rebounds and blocking 10 shots.

It was a rematch of the South Puget Sound League North Division opener for both teams played in early December, which the Raiders also won..

"We beat Auburn in our league opener, but that was a much closer game," Hicks said. "We just came out and got the lead to begin with and once we got that lead we just held it."

The Raiders improved their SPSL North record to 3-5 and their overall mark to 6-6 with the win. TJ is still in the race for a postseason berth, if it can keep up its revived winning ways over the rest of the second half of the season.

"It was an exciting win," said first year TJ head coach Kyle Templeton. "We kind of have been in a rut lately. Teams are prepared for us. Auburn was and now people are ready for us."

The main rut that Templeton is worried about for his team is turnovers, with 25 given away in even Thursday's win over Auburn.
"We had a bunch of turnovers," Hicks said.

The Ballard High School boys basketball team couldn't slow down Roosevelt's Kai Hoyt Jan. 15 on the way to a 59-52 defeat.

Hoyt accounted for almost half of Roosevelt's points, finishing with 27. He is second in KingCo in total scoring with 203 points.

Senior Gary Smith lead the Beavers with 14 points and junior Salim Gloyd chipped in 12.

The loss drops Ballard to 3-5 in the conference and 4-8 overall.

The Beavers face a fearsome opponent in first-place Skyline, a team that has only lost one game, at 7:30 p.m. on Jan 19 at Skyline High School.